Q. David Bowers
"With enough warnings from reading Temple Fielding's Travel Guide and as many travel columns as we could find, a trip to Egypt promised to be an experience. Watch your pockets-travel only in groups-women must not venture out alone-make sure you leave word with someone in your group if you leave by taxi-have the hotel clerk write out your destination in Arabic-whatever you do, be careful!
"So imagine-we arrived very late at night and headed for our rooms. The elevator operator was 6 feet 4 inches tall with a handsome robe and a fez which made him look like a 7-footer. A black flowing mustache gave him a menacing look.
"We arrived on our floor and faced a long walk down the hall. Seated in the distance was another giant-robed, fezzed, and mustached. Atrocious looking, he reminded us of all the warnings we had been reading about. I am sure the others shared my apprehension as we walked slowly toward him. When we were close, he arose from his chair, gave us a big, wide grin, waved his right hand in a friendly gesture and said 'Hi.' We all chuckled, relieved, and for the moment decided to forget Fielding's warnings.
"As if the psychological pressures exerted by various factions long before we ever got to Cairo were not enough, it became evident early in the game that a battle of wits was developing over the Farouk sale.
"There were attempts to draw me out (and others, I know) as to how much I wanted to spend, what I wanted to buy, how much I was planning to bid on various lots. Did I know anything about other Americans' plans? And so on. During the early sessions, snoopers moved around the room trying to pick up information, looking over our shoulders for any pertinent notations and conversing in Arabic with officials in the area. We, in turn, entered fictitious numbers in our auction catalogues and otherwise tried to protect ourselves. We had been warned that the government had established minimum bids on each lot. This was not true, we later learned, but we were not yet sure.
"So, we had pre-sale meetings to plan strategy, a procedure none of us would favor in a usual, legitimate auction sale. It seemed to be the only way to offset not only what we knew they were doing, but what else they were trying of which we were unaware. We knew that they were tapping telephones. One day I was in the lobby and wanted to talk to Hans Schulman, who was staying in another hotel. The public telephones in the lobby were adjacent to the switchboard. I gave the operator the number, and she connected me with the hotel. When I asked for Hans Schulman, the operator pulled the plug and used a double pronged plug connecting me with Schulman and cutting in the monitor at the same time.
'We were careful that our pre-sale meetings were held in different locations each time, with these decisions being made as close to the last minute as possible. Were we sure we weren't being bugged despite our precautions? Not in the least. We could hardly prevent them. We could only take precautions.
"Our first view of Koubbeh Palace was awe-inspiring. A very high wall faced us. I learned very much later that it was six miles around the palace grounds. All high-walled. There were exotic trees and flower gardens and artificial ponds, 70 acres of them. The Palace had 400 rooms. Yet outside there were beggars, children in whose eyes you could see blindness not far off. We learned that only recently, because so many foreigners were coming to the palace, had the exterior roads been paved. We were able to see some of the palace and the extraordinary collections which Farouk had acquired. But we had come early to spend as much time as possible examining the coin lots-the main purpose of our visit.
'The catalogue of The Palace Collections of Egypt was not an example of expertise or even of good organization, in my opinion. The photographs also left much to be desired.
"Guarantees assuring the purchaser could and would pay, for their obligations had to be posted with the government representative. We arranged for deposit with the local branch of Barclay's Bank, and the bank letter sufficed.
"A charge of 5 % above the purchase price was added, and, according to information which may or may not have been accurate, this surcharge represented the fee to be paid to the cataloguers. The lots were sold without any warranty or guarantee whatever, and were not to be returned on any pretext.
"The improper cleaning of the coins soon became evident. This, of course, necessitated careful examination of each coin and, considering the bulk of some of the lots, this was no small task. Those of us who were there will recall the procedure. You asked an attendant for Lot No. 2147, for example. This lot consisted of 123 coins of French Indo-China. The lot was described in the catalogue as follows: 2147. French Indo-China, dates 1885-1947, piastres (21), other silver (43) coppers, etc. (59). Mainly Very Fine. 123.'
"Not much to go by, so we had to look. Well, if someone else was looking at it you had to wait. Finally, the someone else was finished. His attendant counted the coins, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., dropping one on top of another into a tray. Then his attendant turned the lot back to the man in charge of that showcase. Then my attendant, counted the lot, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. again dropping the coins one on top of the other into the tray.
"I may have been looking for only one or two or three special pieces in that lot, which I did by pushing the lots around by my index finger. Okay, I found what I wanted to see. Thank you. That's all I need to see.' Simple? Not yet. My attendant had to count the pieces again before he had the lot returned to the show case. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. One on top of another into the tray. If I saw these coins earlier I would surely like to see them again after who knows how many countings. This was no isolated case; it was the regular practice. We complained and had the procedure changed; otherwise there certainly would have been a lot more damage caused.
"The first day's sale began at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 24, 1954, with the coins of North and South America. Of the first five lots, coins of Argentina, Lots 1 through 4 were withdrawn, supposedly for President Naguib's personal collection. Paul Wittlin, a United States dealer, had the distinction of buying the first lot, No.5, which included 12 gold coins of Argentina.
"The English dealers, Spink and Baldwin, bought most of the Bolivian gold pieces, and the Brazilian gold bars were divided among Baldwin, Bourgey of Paris, Hans Schulman, Bob Schermerhorn of Dallas, and Spink. Prices were pretty good, for then. But, in later years they appeared to be fantastic bargains. For example, the first lot I bought was Lot 68, Columbian 20 pesos, 1863 Popayan Mint, and 20 pesos, 1868 Bogota Mint, at the cost of $210-for both pieces! The very rare 20 pesos 1873, of Costa Rica went to Spink. Years later, in 1976, a similar 1916 Cuban 20 peso piece was sold by Henry Christensen for $40,000!